A solo mini episode while Tess is away at a conference and our pre-recorded episodes… vanished.

A quick update, a little reflection, a bit of molecular cloning, and zero peer review.

Regular episodes return soon.

Tess is sick, Manpreet is deep in manuscript avoidance, and neither of us is emotionally prepared to be productive.

We talk academic burnout, fake productivity, reality TV drama, bad audio feedback, and why tone is apparently a crime.

This is Mildly Intellectual, Mostly Nonsense.

Tess recounts the chaos leading up to her PhD candidacy exam — from anxiety spirals and last-minute panic to passing with flying colours.

We talk imposter syndrome, academia brain, AI study tools, workplace sexism, and the question: if money didn’t matter, would we still choose this life?

This is Mildly Intellectual, Mostly Nonsense.

Audio disclaimer: editing was attempted. Results unclear.

We named the podcast!!!! In this episode, we explain our jobs, and talk about what working in STEM actually looks like - failures, misconceptions, industry vs academia, and all the uncertainty in between.

This is Mildly intellectual, Mostly nonsense.

We finally did it. No name, no script, no plan.

In this episode, we introduce ourselves, talk about our very different paths into STEM, what it’s like being women in science.

This is Mildly Intellectual, Mostly Nonsense.